Bangladesh News

Irked by the ongoing election campaign through posters, billboards and wall writings by aspirant candidates, the Election Commission (EC) has planned to stop the campaign before declaring the election schedule.
“These are immoral activities. But we can not take any step at this moment due to legal limitations,” Abdur Rashid Sarkar, secretary of the EC Secretariat, yesterday told reporters at his office.

The EC will soon hold meetings with the police administration and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) as they have jurisdictions to stop the unauthorised campaign, he said.

“We will ask the police administration and Dhaka City Corporation authorities to initiate steps to stop the campaign by the aspirant candidates,” the secretary said.

While the announcement of the polls schedule is yet to be made, many aspirant candidates in the capital and elsewhere have launched election campaign through posters, billboards and wall writings.

As per the rules of the code of conduct formulated by the EC, no candidate is allowed to launch campaign through billboards, wall writings and colour posters after the election schedule is declared.

But as the EC has no jurisdiction to stop the ongoing election campaign by the aspirant candidates much ahead of the next election scheduled for January, the EC in a recent meeting decided to sit with the police administration and the DCC to stop the unauthorised campaign.

The city corporation ordinance has empowered the corporation authorities to stop such campaigns to keep the city clean.